38 Comments

A little perspective here...at Cal we would die to be 11/20 with 5 conference wins :)

Expand full comment

Some of the worst critics seem to find the worst “facts” and then suggest more negatives--Tinkle didn’t take responsibility for last year’s awful season? Really? Did he have to fall on his sword a few more times?

The pandemic changed lots of things--and the portal has really altered collegiate athletics. Add in NILs and smaller programs like OSU are looking for answers to brand new problems with no examples to build upon.

It is easy to pound on Tinkle. There are also reasons for some to cling to the elite eight run. A few fans are decidedly impatient to a fault--which makes a true rebuild a tough task to complete. Wayne deserves better than he is getting. Only his contract gives him a little cover--very little.

Expand full comment

What if they had a Pac12 basketball conference tourney, and nobody watched? That is us Directv folks in SoCal. Coach Tinkle in 9 years at OSU: 45 % win rate. Only 5 winning seasons above .500. Take away his awful 3 win season and his total OSU record is still under .500. Didn’t see him accept blame (editorial) for the awful season, in his comments to you John. Finally, no leadership example last year when he didn’t fly home with the team, after the Pac 12 tourney. Some blame on the AD as well, for this coaching/contract conundrum.

Expand full comment

( Tongue in cheek ) OSU will dominate Mountain West in 25

Expand full comment

Tink should be gone. The game has passed him & his recruiting skills! Go Ducks!!

Expand full comment

The foundation is there. The absolute most important piece is keeping the players he has. The portal giveth and the portal taketh away.

Expand full comment

Unfortunately the Portal is not the panacea for every program. Case in point, Dana Altman has built his last two teams via the Portal. All they amounted to is a bunch of average college basketball players, at best.

Expand full comment
Mar 8, 2023·edited Mar 9, 2023

Tinkle's Elite Eight run was 100% an inside job: his kid, Tres, and one of the two Thompson kids, Ethan, son of his assistant, Stephen Thompson. They were 2/5 of a decently talented team which included Jarod Lucas, transfer Alatishe, Zach Reichle and a so-so big man, Roman Silva. But a program cannot depend on insiders for long since they move on and there is nothing left behind. Tinkle has never shown any ability to recruit at Oregon State. Maybe he can find kids in the portal. But if he can't recruit high school kids to Corvallis why will he be able to get transfers there?

Expand full comment

Prayers for the guy. The older I get, the more I want everyone to be successful and happy. Corvallis is a tough place to recruit to. And with NIL, the world at the D1 level looks darker for the have nots. Arizona pumps money into their program and it shows. Year after year.

Expand full comment

The other thing to consider is that the Beavers all time win percentage isn't much better than Tickles (.565 vs .539). Perhaps an occasional tourney appearance is all that they are cracked up to be.

Expand full comment
Mar 8, 2023·edited Mar 8, 2023

And… Bust. But we’re stuck.

Expand full comment

All the blame on everyone and everything else. At some point, it must be the coach.

Football, Baseball, Soccer, Gymnastics, Wrestling and XC got it going.

Hmm...

Goodbye Mr.Tinkle

Expand full comment

Read your Wanye Tinkle column late JC, good Job!. It was appropriate that you mentioned Tinkle's first year. To me that year clearly demonstrated his ability to coach. With 17 staright home wins with 5 of his guys coming from "walk-the-halls" recruiting.

He taught those 5 guys defense. You really can't teach offense, at least not like defense can be taught and his walk-ons performed adequately. Tinkle was so appreciative of their contributions and the fact that none of them had even a slim chance to make the following years tream, that he started those 5 guys the last game of the season playing them the first two minutes. That was a big time coaching job. One that should have warranted Coach of the Year accolades.

Tinkle is in precarious position now and his fate remains uncertain. (at least they did not get blown out by AZ ST last night) But make no mistake the guy can coach. If he does wath he needs to do with the transfer portal, he may survive.

Expand full comment

Tinkles excuses sound like another coach, ever hear of Anderson.

Expand full comment

Every school in the PAC12 mosh pit (all but UCLA or Arizona) has to be near-perfect in recruiting — HS, JC and transfer portal — and suit its playing style to its talent (which is harder than it sounds).

I don’t know Tinkle at all. But I do know that no OSU squad had won as many games in a single season as his Elite 8 team since 2011.

Expand full comment

Houston is #4

Expand full comment